Drug trial news (May 3)

[Dam Son <son@fermi.phys.washington.edu>]

May 03: 'Drug kingpin' collapses as trial starts 
May 03: Vietnam drugs trial skirts details of kingpins 


'Drug kingpin' collapses as trial starts 

Tight squeeze: the accused in Vietnam's most sensational drug trial
appear in the Hanoi People's Court yesterday. Agence France-Presse
photo

Hanoi -- The alleged mastermind of the country's biggest drug ring
collapsed in the dock yesterday as he and 21 others, including a
further seven police officers, went on trial.

The case promises to expose heroin trafficking among senior ranks in
the feared Interior Ministry, the state security branch.

About 500 people packed into the Hanoi People's Court, cramming into
corridors and stairwells, while angry crowds surged outside.

Witnesses said Vu Xuan Truong, a 37-year-old police captain with the
Interior Ministry's anti-crime unit, collapsed in the dock as charges
of drug trafficking, possession and storage were read out.

In unprecedented scenes, crowds chanted "let us hear" and "open
justice" after officials refused to switch on loud-speakers to
broadcast the trial's opening outside the court.

Armed police forced all spectators, except invited guests and
relatives, away from the court gates, despite previous pleas from
judges for an open trial.

Many citizens had turned up to hear revelations from Truong, named by
Laotian drug dealer Sieng Pheng in a last-minute confession before a
firing squad last July.

Truong has promised to reveal the identities of "extremely important
people" before he receives a likely death sentence.

Investigations have exposed a vast Interior Ministry cover-up for
Truong.

He allegedly worked with Pheng for several years as part of a ring
which smuggled an estimated 300 kilograms of heroin through Vietnam.

Four of Truong's bosses are among the 40 people arrested so far.

The hearing is expected to last 10 days.

Tension flared as more than 1,000 people gathered in vain to hear
proceedings start.

Vietnam's usually sober state media had given the case blanket
coverage for several weeks.

Instead of the usual loud-speakers broadcasting events in the court,
only police megaphones could be heard warning people to move or face
arrest.

Police with batons beat several spectators clinging to wrought-iron
fences around the French-built court, who hoped to glimpse the
defendants. Riot police with AK-47 rifles cleared a path for the
convoy of prison trucks and guard vans.

The crowd shouted abuse at the defendants, who peered out through
barred grilles.

Some of the accused, including Truong, appeared to smile and wave.
Others wept.

One man spat through the grille as his van swept past the throng.

Amid chants, several elderly Hanoi residents yelled abuse at the court
guards, demanding to be told what was going on. "You are all crazy,
you must let us hear," one bearded man shouted, waving his stick in
the face of a senior officer.

Such raw emotions rarely surface in public in Vietnam, where the
omnipotent Interior Ministry continues to maintain an iron grip on
society despite 10 years of liberal reforms.

The ministry controls the police and immigration departments and is
responsible for all internal security and stability.

The Communist Party is adamant national security must remain a key
priority as the country opens to the outside world. -- By GREG TORODE,
SCMP
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Vietnam drugs trial skirts details of kingpins 

By Adrian Edwards

Hanoi (Reuter) - Vietnam's biggest drugs trial entered its second day
on Saturday but with few signs yet that alleged narcotics kingpins
might be exposed.

Leading dailies splashed pictures of Friday's court proceedings across
front pages showing the handcuffed defendants standing with bowed
heads at the Hanoi People's Court.

Hundreds of curious onlookers were gathered outside the building on
Saturday as the accused were cross-examined, one by one, in a
painstaking process set to last for more than a week and aimed at
determining their level of guilt.

A presiding judge said during the past week that nearly half the 22
defendants on trial, 11 of whom are police officials or border guards,
were likely to face the death penalty.

But while Vietnam's state-controlled media devoted pages to details of
the case, there was little major news, and no indication that a threat
made earlier by lead defendant Vu Xuan Truong to expose some
``extremely important people'' would be made good.

In a prison interview on Monday he was quoted as saying he would
exchange the information in return for the lives of family members,
who are also on trial, being spared.

Truong denied on Friday that 5.1 kg (11.25 pounds) of heroin found at
his home was intended for trafficking, but Voice of Vietnam radio
reported on Saturday he later admitted involvement in illegal
narcotics trading.

The only new name to enter proceedings was a little known friend of
one of the drivers involved in Truong's ring.

The scandal dates back to January 1995 when two Laotian nationals were
arrested in Vietnam after they were found in possession of 15 kg (33
pounds) of heroin.

One of the men, Sieng Pheng, earned a last minute reprieve from
execution after offering information which later led to the arrest of
around 30 people.

Pheng said heroin concealed in his car was part of his delivery and
that more had been hidden in a false bottom of the car's fuel tank.

Five police officers investigating the case, including Truong, were
charged with stealing the drugs after a subsequent examination of the
fuel tank found it empty.

International drugs experts say Vietnam, with its lengthy land and sea
borders, is becoming a major conduit and market for narcotics from
Asia's notorious Golden Triangle region, which straddles the borders
of China, Burma, Laos and Thailand.

On Saturday lawmakers at the National Assembly called for tougher
punishments for traffickers and addicts, but also said the government
should press the authorities in neighbouring Laos to do more to
prevent narcotics from crossing into Vietnam.

A senior police officer was quoted in the Thanh Nien newspaper as
saying hundreds of kilos of heroin and opium were entering the country
each year.

Customs officials were quoted in a separate paper as saying 6.5 tonnes
of hashish, 8.9 kg (19.6 pounds) of opium and 0.7 kg (1.5 pounds) of
heroin had been found in parcels being sent out of Vietnam by post
during the first three months of 1997.

Foreign media access to the trial was barred and the normal loudhailer
relay of events outside the court building was switched off.
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